The constitutional jurisdiction in ruins: fundamental rights at the neoliberal and neoconservative crossroads in Brazil

Abstract

This paper explores the political and legal impacts of the rise of the far-right in Brazil on constitutional jurisdiction. Using the hypothetical-deductive method, it analyzes this contemporary phenomenon, which poses a risk to constitutional democracies. The social and political crisis arises from the far-right's ascent, which disrupts the institutional framework of constitutional jurisdiction by electing representatives whose political practices oppose democracy, fundamental rights, and the Rule of Law. Consequently, debates and Constitutional Amendment Proposals with anti-democratic content, fueled by the logic of social networks, trivialize law and politics. The backdrop of this situation is the global rise of the far-right, which sacrifices democracies and hard-won rights in the name of a supposed "freedom" that, in reality, is characterized on one hand by conservative fundamentalism on cultural issues and, on the other, by fiscal austerity and the strangulation of social rights by the market. The paper concludes that the current regressive context, marked by the rise of the far-right, undermines citizenship, poses a risk to the protection and guarantee of fundamental rights in Brazil, and therefore threatens the exercise of constitutional jurisdiction.

Keywords: constitutional jurisdiction; fundamental rights; far-right.